World geo-economics of the last two decades have seriously impacted on governments' capability to finance university teaching, research and community engagement, especially in the developing world. Over the same period however, the demands and expectations exerted on universities by government and society have increased phenomenally. To meet these demands and expectations, universities have resorted to non-traditional strategies of financing their teaching, research and community engagement endeavour. One such strategy is the university--government--international donor community cooperation in teaching, research and community engagement, where government and/or international donor community finance university teaching, research and community engagement within clear predetermined outputs such as training and development of government personnel and local community members; exposure of students to community dynamics; and production of problem-solving data-based research. The article relates these insights to the Multilingual, Informatics and Development Programme (MIDP) being actualised by the University of the Free State.